Community-AID Blog

We know that there are many barriers for young people receiving services, especially when they come from historically marginalized groups. This is a direct result of oppressive practices, such as segregated schools with unequal resources, and the concentration of community-based resources in certain neighborhoods that are inaccessible to marginalized families. We also know that communities have their own ways of meeting their own needs and that outsiders, especially academic researchers, have a bad reputation for entering communities facing problems and waving their “solution flag” as if residents would come flocking once they see it. I use the metaphor of a “solution flag” to describe the practice of entering a group, intellectualizing the problem, and recommending (sometimes requiring) residents follow our solutions. This reputation has been earned through decades of well-meaning, but harmful practices. In the very least, solutions that are not developed by the people experiencing barriers are often ineffective and unsupported. It’s important to our Lab that we are aware of our own flags, and be open to identifying others.

One of the things the Lab has started to examine in various settings is how young people develop acritical consciousness about oppression, and how they become empowered to address oppressive systems. Critical consciousness, according to leading scholars in the area, is a process by which an individual becomes aware of systemic inequities, becomes motivated and feels a sense of personal efficacy to change them, and results in action taken.

It makes perfect sense then, that the Lab would be interested in identifying how this process develops. How do young people come to understand the systems in which they live? How do they understand inequity, as it affects their own lives and the lives of others? How do they become motivated to take action, and what might that action look like? Understanding community-based practices and programs that contribute to critical consciousness helps us understand how social change happens. Identifying and evaluating these approaches helps us become more humble scholars, researchers, and community members. Part of the Lab’s role is to cultivate and support, through rigorous research, the solutions developed by communities that meet their needs and solve their problems as they experience them. We stop waving our scholarly “solution flag” and develop empirical support for the “solution flags” of communities. Stay tuned for some of these highlights!​=====Photo credit: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3394/3526522573_8f40a675b6.jpg